Ismael Bermúdez
12/18/2020 10:53 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 12/18/2020 11:01 AM
Unemployed persons who sought employment in the third quarter totaled 2,250,000, 11.7% of the active population.
But if we add those who
were employed
at the beginning of the year
and who are now unemployed
and who, due to the pandemic and quarantine, were
unable to seek work
- a situation aggravated by the almost zero demand for workers due to the partial or total closure of factories , shops and businesses-,
real unemployment would amount to more than 20.6% or about 4 million unemployed
.
If this same exercise were carried out in relation to the third quarter of 2019, the unemployment rate would be
22.6%.
This happens because
“the unemployment rate masks a situation that is more serious
.
If you take into account that the people who want to work are the same as in the first quarter of this year, unemployment exceeds 20%, a figure similar to those of the great macroeconomic and social crises in Argentina ", says
Guido Lorenzo
, from the consulting firm LCG .
Lorenzo explains that "there are workers who
withdraw from the job market
for bad reasons. They are the effects of a
discouraged
worker
, that is, a person who is not looking for work because the situation is so bad that they prefer not to waste time or money in looking for a job. employment and the effect of the possible confined worker who receives or does not receive assistance. ”And he adds:“ a fact that worries and alerts is that these workers at some point will have to return to the job market, but that is not surprising because it is in line with the advance of the poverty data that reflect a year with a double-digit drop in activity and inflation that exceeds 35% ”.
Also the economist
Claudio Lozano,
director of Banco Nación
,
points out: "If we consider the pre-pandemic activity, the unemployment rate in this quarter
would be 20.6%
.
"
Lozano also explains that “given that during the third quarter the health prevention and confinement policies were maintained to a greater extent, beyond certain specific flexibilities, the labor picture is not yet adequately reflected in the unemployment rate, which if although it is higher than that recorded in the first quarter, it had a moderate increase that is not related to the magnitude of the employment crisis generated ".
In addition, also as a consequence of health and labor restrictions, there was a
strong increase in underemployment
that includes people who work less than 35 hours a week but are willing to work more and amounted to 13.4% or 2,550,000 people.
Thus "the participation of this sector in the total of employed persons went from 11% in the second quarter to 15.2% in the third, against 14.1% in the same period of 2019", indicates the INDEC Report.
On the other hand, the number of employed persons looking for another job, dissatisfied with the one they have or because they are looking for a better job, is 14.8%, higher than the 11.6% in the second quarter.
INDEC clarifies that “the economically active population is made up of the employed and the unemployed.
The latter group actively lobbies the labor market in search of an occupation.
In order to have an indicator on global pressure, the employed who, although they have a job, are actively looking for another (employed demanding workers) are added.
And "in a lower gradation of work pressure, there are those employed who do not actively demand another job, but are willing to extend their working hours.
GB
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